Ensuring Accurate and Reliable Data from Drone Surveys

If you want to ensure that the data collected from a drone survey mission is accurate and reliable over time, there are a few steps you can take. Firstly, make sure that the images overlap each other by at least 75% on the front and 60% on each side. This will help to achieve better results. Secondly, ensure that the takeoff (and landing) location is level and free of obstructions.

Once these adjustments have been made, you can start your flight and your drone will automatically collect data according to your flight path and parameters. It is important to maintain eye contact with your drone and make sure that it progresses through each segment of your networked flight as planned. All drone images taken in a survey should be reviewed and corrected for positioning inaccuracies. To ensure accuracy, you can use either real-time kinematic processing (RTK) on a drone or post-processing kinematics (PPK).Ground control points (GCPs) are also essential for detecting changes and performing repeatable studies with high-precision drones. GCPs can be temporary or permanent, depending on the use case.

For permanent GCPs, we recommend 2 x 2 foot patio blocks with a black and white checkered pattern. Inspect the center of each of the GCPs with a professional-quality GPS.

Benefits of Drone Topography

Drone topography offers a number of benefits for the mining and aggregates industries, including improving efficiency, using mine exploration and inspection, and improving safety standards. Being able to capture accurate and exact visual representations of a work site quickly and efficiently is one of the main advantages of using drones for topography. Companies now use drones to capture survey data frequently and securely, obtaining their reports within 24 hours. Periodic drone inspections also help teams better anticipate and detect workplace hazards, improving overall site safety.

Not only are drone inspections useful in keeping workers safer, but the accurate data collected can be used to identify potential hazards on site before they cause problems.

Accuracy is Key

Accuracy is the number one priority in drone surveying operations, so make sure your supplier understands why ground control is so important. Accurate data from 3D drone surveys, combined with platforms that allow this data to be shared throughout the organization, make it very simple to view sites as close as possible to the real world. When the inspection of the drone is finished, pressing the single button again will send the data to Propeller via a WiFi signal, usually an access point on a mobile phone. RTK describes the integrated drone hardware that allows the drone to communicate with a base station in real time to validate its location in space.

Drone Surveys for Topography

A drone study refers to the use of a drone, or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), to capture aerial data with downward-facing sensors, such as RGB or multispectral cameras and LIDAR loads. Survey data captured by drones and processed by software platforms such as Propeller helps to centralize project documentation and increase collaboration with surveyors, engineers, foremen and site managers. Aerial images taken by drones greatly accelerate and simplify topographic studies for land management and planning. The use of drones for photogrammetry has revolutionized the field and offers numerous advantages over traditional methods that include manned aircraft or terrestrial topography.

In traditional drone topography, a sufficient number of known points are needed to verify and fix drone images to the ground.